Equal pay settlements for female workers in local councils across the UK have now exceeded £1 billion, with expectations of thousands more claims to be resolved in the coming year. These legal actions have been initiated against local authorities on behalf of employees in roles traditionally dominated by women, such as cleaners and carers, who for years have faced discriminatory conditions and benefits when compared to those in traditionally male-dominated professions.

The trade union GMB has been instrumental in securing these significant settlements, announcing it has achieved a total of £1.1 billion for thousands of workers across six local councils. So far, nearly 30,000 claims have been settled out of court, with the average payout per worker amounting to approximately £30,000. The union anticipates a further influx of thousands of claims in the next year.

A notable recent success was the "historic" victory claimed by GMB and Unison for thousands of employees of Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children’s Trust. Following a four-year campaign, a settlement agreement valued at about £250 million was reached. This case gained considerable public attention, as the council cited potential equal pay liabilities as a key factor in its effective bankruptcy declaration in 2023, though initial liability estimates were as high as £750 million. The council's decision to issue a section 114 notice, however, was later scrutinized by accounting academics who suggested its financial standing might have been better than initially portrayed by senior officers. In this specific case, some Birmingham city council employees received sums up to £55,000.

Underpinning these claims is the Equality Act 2010, which mandates equal pay and contractual terms for women and men, even when performing different roles that are deemed to hold "equal value." Equal pay claims typically contend that jobs predominantly held by women—such as carers, administrators, and teaching assistants—are unfairly assigned inferior pay grades and conditions compared to male-dominated roles like waste collection.

Beyond Birmingham, the largest single council settlement to date was secured in Glasgow, where a deal totalling £770 million was struck in 2022. Despite this agreement, workers are still awaiting the council's promised redesign of its pay and grading structure to rectify ongoing equal pay issues. Other successful cases championed by GMB include Sheffield (£60 million), Leeds (£10 million), Blaenau Gwent (£3 million), and Falkirk (£3 million).

The scale of the issue remains substantial, with GMB reporting that an additional 40,000 claims are still outstanding across 26 local authorities. This includes the six councils where settlements have already been made, and these outstanding claims are projected to amount to hundreds of millions of pounds. Among the other local councils facing pending claims are Dundee, Fife, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Argyll & Bute, Brighton, Southampton, Bristol, Swansea, Cardiff, Sunderland, Coventry, Cumberland, and Westmorland.

These financial pressures from equal pay settlements coincide with broader struggles for local councils nationwide. A record number of authorities are anticipated to seek exceptional financial support from the government in 2026-27, even with government reforms aimed at boosting funding for councils in deprived areas. GMB further indicated its intention to launch another 10,000 claims across five additional local councils next year, issuing warnings to authorities like Coventry and Bradford to engage in negotiations or face "eye-watering settlement figures."